Kwon Hyeok-kyu Celtic transfer scouting: Would Korean starlet fit in?

Formerly of K League 2 side Buson Ipark, Hyeok-kyu recently completed his military service during a loan spell with Gimcheon Sangmu in South Korea’s top tier. The defensive midfielder joins on a five-year deal.

Here is what the players has to offer.

He made 19 appearances for Gimcheon Sangmu, part of the sports division of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, in last year's K League 1 before returning to parent club Bosun where he played five times in the final few weeks of their season.

Although unable to help his loan side avoid relegation to the second tier during his spell there, the South Korean under-23 international is considered to be one of the country’s biggest prospects and could become the latest Celtic recruit from the Asian market.

Here, we take a closer look at Hyeok-kyu's profile to find out how well he would fit in at Parkhead.

The dataset used for this analysis includes all players who played a minimum of 1,000 minutes in central defensive midfield/central midfield in this year’s K League 1 (42 players).

Ball-carrying abilities

The first area to assess Hyeok-kyu is his ball-carrying ability. As shown in the below scatter graph, he attempted 1.28 dribbles per 90 in this season’s K League 1 while his 0.32 progressive runs were below the average mark for a midfielder in South Korea’s top flight.

Passing abilities

The next ability to consider is passing, a vital ability for any midfielder, even more so for one coming into a ball-dominant Celtic side.

The first scatter graph here shows passes per 90 and his overall passing accuracy percentage. Although these general passing numbers won’t tell us too much about Hyeok-kyu’s passing profile they give an initial impression of how he performs in possession.

His overall passes per 90 were 44.72 while he was secure enough on the ball with a pass completion was 87.24 per cent, above average for a K League 1 midfielder.

Looking at his progressive passing numbers in more detail can give a better understanding of his performance in possession.

Wyscout defines a progressive pass as a forward pass that attempts to advance a team significantly closer to the opponent's goal. These numbers can therefore shine a light on how effective he is at progressing the ball through his passing.

Here we can see Hyeok-kyu attempted one of the lowest numbers of progressive passes per 90 for a K League 1 midfielder while he was also below average for his accuracy rate (64.36 per cent).

Assessing these first two scatter graphs together, Hyeok-kyu does not appear to be overly progressive in possession, either through carrying or passing.

Defensive abilities

Looking at several defensive metrics next can give some insight into how he performs off the ball. 

Firstly, defensive duels. Here we can see Hyeok-kyu was one of the most active midfielders in the K League 1 when it came to defensive duels, contesting 7.93 per 90, winning 61.49 per cent of them, just under average amongst his positional peers.

He was similarly active aerially. He contested an average of 3.75 aerial duels per 90. Perhaps unsurprisingly given his 6ft 3in height (second tallest in this dataset), he boasted one of the highest win rates of any K League 1 midfielder when it came to duels in the air, coming out on top 65.71 per cent of the time.

Finally, on defensive ability, another few general defensive metrics can be assessed. For possession-adjusted (PAdj) interceptions, Hyeok-kyu made 6.84 per 90, one of the highest of any midfielder in the league. He also comes in above average for shots blocked per 90, 0.47 per 90.

Conclusion

Having assessed some key abilities, the below percentile rank chart gives an overall picture of Hyeok-kyu’s data profile.

His defensive numbers certainly jump out here too. Given Gimcheon Sangmu endured a difficult campaign that culminated in relegation, it is probably not a surprise to see his defensive volume metrics rank so highly. His win rate percentages, particularly aerially, are certainly impressive.

Despite struggling in the 2022 K League 1, Gimcheon Sangmu did look to dominate the ball though, averaging 55.5 per cent possession, the third highest in the league.

Hyeok-kyu’s lower ranks for possession metrics and high defensive ranks, therefore, point to his role at the base of their midfield being focused mostly on winning the ball back.

This would also account for low ranks for the attacking metrics included in the chart, including his shots per 90 of 0.48. Although his on-target percentage was comfortably above average at 40.74 per cent.

Further analysis through video would be required to make any definitive assessments of him, it would be safe to say he profiles very much as a ball-winning defensive midfielder though.

That also appears the case when looking at his heat map from the last year too:

Ultimately, the question mark would be over how Kwon Hyeok-kyu’s ability in possession scales up to Rodgers' Celtic.

Like Tomoki Iwata, his versatility, having previously also played at centre-back, is likely to appeal to Rodgers while his physical attributes and defensive abilities would certainly give the Celtic manager.